benjamminb6’s BodyBlog

Double cardio update: 28/31.

I think that’s the right number haha.  I should double check, but at any rate, I have still only missed the 3 days.  This week has been extremely uneventful as I have been locked up doing homework and catching up on mucho sleep, so these posts have been pretty short.  I sort of have a date this week, so that should be interesting, a girl from school named Megan who asked me out.  We’ll see how that goes.  And today I spent the day with Dave which was nice, Dave is awesome, and a great friend.  He gives great advice, so I’m always glad when we get to hang out.  But I am not gonna go into details about anything since I need to go make something to eat and get some rest!

Yesterday I did my legs and my abs.  I have been doing my abs more regularly, and constantly switching up the exercises I do, but I definitely need to do more oblique work.  I tried to go heavier than I have ever gone on the hack squat, and I felt a pain in my right knee.  I played basketball too after my workout, and today my knee has been killing me.  I think I strained a tendon or ligament or something, so I need to be really careful with it this week.  I have a feeling that the pain was less about the weight that I used, and more about the fact that my shoes are complete shit and don’t really provide any kind of support anymore.  I have had these shoes for like 2 years and they have holes in them and are just trash.  So it’s very possible that the instability of my shoes allowed my legs to not be fully stable while pressing all that weight.  I dunno.  Other than that, the leg workout was good, pretty much the usual.  I still have a desire to do much more intensive leg workouts, but I am being patient until I have done enough cardio to get my bodyfat down before I destroy my legs.  My shoulder workout today was outstanding!!!  I don’t remember the last time that I worked my shoulders this hard or felt such a nice pump and burn in them, they were looking absolutely HUGE!!!  I can’t wait to see how they feel tomorrow, they should be nice and sore haha.  Tomorrow night is bicep night, which I always look forward to.  I am going to try and do barbell curls with the straight bar instead of the ex-bar, even tho it is hard on my wrists, I have been wanting to switch it up every so often, so that’s the plan.  There’s a few other new things that I am planning on trying as well, so it should be a good hard workout.  Ok, off to make eggs .

Double cardio update 26/29.

Ok, so this will be quick as there is not much to report.  Back workout was very good and I felt very strong and went a little heavier than usual on pretty much all exercises.  Tricep workout was also good and I felt a good pump in my triceps which was nice since I don’t always feel that way.  Cardio has been going well and I have had a few moments where I thought I would just skip it, but forced myself to go and have always been glad that I did.  3 weeks left exactly, and I can miss 3 days and still hit my goal, so I’m not sure if I will take a day off each week or maybe save them this week, take a day off next week to recharge and finish strong. 

Not much else going on.  I think I am dropping piano and spanish class since I am so far behind in both.  I will get an F in both for dropping, which sucks, but I was not capable of keeping up in either.  I really want to learn piano, so I may take private lessons or something this summer and then retake the class.  And I will have to retake the spanish class in order to graduate I think, but if that is the case, then I need to go back and take spanish 2 first since this class is way too advanced for me.  Dropping them should help me do a little better in my other classes though, which is good, so it will have positives as well as negatives. 

Oh, and I have been talking to this girl from school, her name is Megan and she is really nice and really funny, but I’m not sure how I feel about her yet.  We are supposed to hang out next week, but I think part of why I like her is because she reminds me of Heather, which is probably a bad thing.  I don’t know that I see her as girlfriend material, but it will be nice to hang out with someone funny, and she wants to go eat ice cream, so we will see how it goes.  Ok, busy day tomorrow, so bed time.

Double cardio update: 24/27.

Well, today was a pretty good day.  I actually went to class!!  I skipped piano because I am so far behind and unprepared that it seems silly to go if I’m not able to participate.  That is my 4th absence, so I think that means I am dropped from that class, but the professor was not at all helpful anyway, so I will just maybe try to practice on my own from time to time and hopefully take private lessons at some point, because I do really want to learn to play.  My communications class was good, and we watched a really funny movie.  I am probably a little behind in that class too, but she is offering us extra credit if we go watch a documentary on campus, so I am going to go in an effort to help my grade.  As for my 3 online classes….who knows.  I am keeping up in English barely, but have no idea what is going on in Spanish or Reading, so tomorrow I am going to try and catch up a little bit in each.

So the gym tonight was good.  I did my chest and having watched Victor pump more than double his bodyweight on the bench press yesterday, I felt inspired to try to bench.  I haven’t benched in years, I pretty much only use dumbells or hammer machines nowadays for chest, so I was a little nervous.  I took it easy tho, and did 4 sets of flat bench, and 4 sets of incline bench.  I certainly could have gone a little heavier on both, but for my 1st time in years, I did pretty well.  I also did the decline hammer machine, incline dumbell press, pec dec fly machine, and cable crossovers.  It was a good workout, and I felt pretty pumped.  I’m excited for my back workout tomorrow!

Double cardio update: 23/26.

 Ok, so I haven’t written in here the past few days because I haven’t really had much to say and I have been doing copious amounts of homework, so my time was precious.  Anyway, leg day and shoulder day were pretty standard, not much to talk about, good workout overall, but I probably work less hard on these two than any other bodyparts, so I need to up the intensity.  Today I did my biceps, and I tried to work them really hard, but never really felt like a got a good pump.  It was frustrating.  I had done like 20 sets already and still felt nothing, and then Victor walked in, did one set of dumbell curls with lighter weight than I was using, and had to sit down because the burn and pump in his biceps was so bad!  I swear he has 20 inch arms and he only weighs 145 pounds, its ridiculous.  So I tried my best to really work my biceps hard, but have been feeling down all week about my body and my workouts in general.  I did do my abs tho, and worked pretty hard on them, and have been doing my cardio, so at least I’m being consistent.

I think the main problem I am having is a protein deficiency.  I need to be eating between 235-300 grams per day, but I think I have only been taking in like 140 grams per day!!  I didn’t realize this until yesterday when I was discussing my rough patch in the gym with my buddy Adam, who also has hit a plateau of sorts in the gym.  So he was talking about his need to up his calories, so I decided to write down everything I had eaten all day and figure it all out, and I was surprised to see how little protein I have been eating the past two weeks!!!  I have been going extremely low carb and was trying to do keto….but I dont think I ever got my fat intake up to 65%, so I guess I just defeated the whole purpose.  Anyway, since my sleep schedule has been off, and I haven’t been able to go shopping, my food has been limited, and I am definitely lacking.  So this week I plan on going and stocking up on protein powder, chicken breasts, tuna, etc, so I can be sure to fulfill my protein needs.  Also, as of April 1st, I am thinking about going back to writing everything down in the gym and keeping a workout log so I can be sure that I am making gains in strength and not just working out randomly.  Having it planned out ahead of time will force me to work a little harder and be more focused I think, and having adequate protein should help me rebuild muscle and feel stronger.  I have been doing so much cardio and lifting hard every night, but I feel like everyday I look fatter and fatter instead of thinner and more muscular.  It’s like I’m working my ass off and somehow going backwards, and I am 99% sure that it is diet related.  So hopefully things will start to look up in the next few weeks.  I had hoped to have decent abs by my birthday, but I now know that that is just not gonna happen, but if I keep working hard, and fix my dietary problems, hopefully by June 1st I can accomplish that goal.

Double cardio update 20/23.

So Victor was at the gym tonight.  Victor is an old friend, and he totally cracks me up, plus he seems to know alot about lifting, so I enjoy talking to him when he is at the gym.  However, I always end up feeling really shitty about myself when he is there haha!  This kid is like 23 years old, he lifts weights maybe once a week, never ever does cardio, and has the shittiest diet in history!  All he eats is chips, soda, pizza, cheeseburgers….just junk food.  And he doesn’t eat on a regular schedule, he might eat 5 shitty meals one day, and then only one or two shitty meals the next day.  With that description, you would assume that he was in terrible shape, but this guy is insanely ripped and vascular!  I was working my triceps tonight real hard, and he walked in, hasn’t warmed up or anything, and his tricep is bulging out, a full perfectly shaped horseshoe with deep striations.  No joke, his tricep looks better than tons of pros in contest condition, its absurd.  He hasn’t done chest in a while, and he only weighs 148 pounds himself (he’s pretty short), so he goes to the bench press and warms up with 245 pounds and then goes right to 305 for 8 reps like its nothing!!!!  He benches more than double his body weight!!  I don’t know if I can even bench my body weight since I haven’t done a regular bench press in years…but still.  And his huge, shredded, ripped body has just been given to him by stellar genetics, its so frustrating to me!  He only does one exercise per bodypart, once a week, and he looks incredible.  His biceps are massive, and all he does is alternating dumbell curls.  This guy is probably 8 inches shorter than me, and weighs 90 pounds less than me, but his arms are easily 2 inches bigger than mine.  I keep telling him that if he ate better and did some ab work/cardio, that he could compete and probably easily win a bodybuilding competition.  He already looks nearly contest ready.  I want to take him over to Milos Sarcev’s Koloseum Gym up the street and explain to Milos this guy’s shitty habits because I know if Victor were working with someone knowledgeable to help him prepare, that he could compete in a contest and win his weigh class no problem.  Ok, enough about my jealousy haha.

I did my triceps tonight, and I tried to abuse them.  I did close grip bench presses on the smith machine, and it was the first time that I have ever done this exercise.  I liked it, but I wasn’t sure it was as special as everyone makes it out to be.  I guess only time will tell.  I also did v-bar and rope pressdowns, one arm and 2 arm reverse pulldowns, dip machine, skullcrushers, and one arm dumbell overhead presses.  I worked hard, and felt like my arms looked big and swollen, so hopefully it’s just a matter of time.  I have all of these aspirations for my body, especially come summer time for the beach, but I am starting to be realistic and realize that although I will look much better this summer, it will take me until next summer to really put all the pieces together and make the changes that I want to make.  So I just have to keep working hard and putting in the effort.

Double cardio update: 19/22.

Ok, so my day off was very nice.  I really wanted to go to the gym and work out, especially at night, but it was good to rest, and I got plenty of sleep.  Today I was right back in there feeling really good and working hard tho.  My goal is to go the next 15 days in a row before I take a day off again.  That will give me a really easy finish up to my birthday and should make it fairly simple to accomplish my double cardio goal.

Today my mom was here, so we went to my brother’s house and had dinner with he and his fiancee.  We went to this little hole in the wall place down the street, which has really good food, and so since I have been doing keto for about a week I decided to indulge and eat some carbs.  I had a philly cheesesteak sandwhich, french fries, and a large coke.  Oh, it was delicious, but my stomach was not happy with me afterwards.  I had MAJOR diahrrea for the rest of the evening haha, which sucked, but I think that will quell some of my cravings for a bit.  So tomorrow I am going to pick up some more eggs and another bag of chicken breast and that will hafta last me till I get money in a week.

So my workout tonight went really well.  I got to the gym right at midnight and it was more packed than I have ever seen it at that time!  I think it was because of March Madness because most of the guys were basketball players, so they probably watched all the athletic, in-shape players on tv and felt inspired to hit the gym.  I’m not sure if it is because of the carbs I ate, or the extra calories, or the day off, or maybe a combination of all of the above, but I felt really strong tonight.  I had endless energy and basically had to make myself quit because I didn’t wanna overdo it.  But I did pullups, lat pulldowns, cable rows, serratus, cable snakes, reverse grip ez bar lat pulldowns, deadlifts, bent over barbell rows, tbar machine rows, and dumbell rows.  10 exercises!!  Thats a lot even for me, and I did 3-4 sets of each, so I really worked hard and put in a ton of reps.   And I still had energy to do a pretty decent set of ab work and 20 minutes of cardio, and wanted to do more!  So I feel really good, plus I enjoyed the new exercises that I threw in today.  Tomorrow is triceps, and I hope to have just as much intensity if not more.  I am going to do a bunch of sets of close grip bench press on the smith machine.  I’m not sure if the smith is better or worse for this exercise, but since this will be my 1st attempt at it, I am being safe.  So I’m hoping to do all my usual stuff, plus anywhere from 6-10 sets of the close grip bench, and maybe I will add dips or something else fairly new at the end.

I currently do 45 minutes of cardio in the morning and another light 20 minutes at night.  I can see visible changes in the mirror, but I am impatient lol, and still somewhat paranoid about my diet, and was reading another article in which a pro talked about doing 2-3 hours of cardio daily to get into absolutely ripped condition.  I also used calipers to measure my bodyfat today, and it came out at about 18% which is roughly what I figured it was at, but since I want to be around 8%, I still have a ton of work to do.  So I am going to up my morning cardio to 1 hour instead of just 45 minutes, and up my night cardio to 45 minutes and up the intensity.  I am also going to be very good about doing my abs regularly and only do one bodypart per day from now until at least my birthday.  So for the next 4 weeks it will be full steam ahead, and tons of intensity, and hopefully on my bday I can measure my bodyfat again and see a number closer to 12% or less.  My goal is 8% by June 1st, which is 10 weeks away, so we will see if I can get there.

Cardio update: 18/20.

Sooo I was feeling sick and had allergies all day, not to mention I was feeling fatigued already from my caloric deficit.  Soo I had contemplated skipping the gym tonight, but decided to go anyway, since I had already done my cardio in the morning.  With that said, I haven’t taken an entire day off from the gym in nearly 3 weeks, so tomorrow, Wednesday, I am planning on resting all day.  No cardio, no gym, no nothing.  Just sleep, eat, maybe play piano and watch some movies, but mostly just sleep all day and try to relax.  I hate to break my streak of like 16 straight days of double cardio, but I don’t wanna get burned out, and this day of rest should help recharge me for the final 28 day run to my bday, and give me some needed rest before back day on Thursday and tricep day on Friday, since those are the two bodyparts that I am trying to work hardest on improving.  Sooo, tomorrow should be a nice break, plus I am planning on seeing my mom, which is always good when I haven’t seen her in a few weeks.

So my workout was good despite being exhausted.  I decided to only do exercises that I pretty much NEVER do for chest, so I did a machine press that I have never ever used before, incline dumbell flyes, flat bench dumbell press that I also have never ever done before, dips, and a machine fly.  The flat dumbell press was interesting.  I always do the incline, and I felt a little stronger on the flat, so I’m not sure if that is natural, but it was difficult getting the dumbells in place once I had gone up in weight to heavier dumbells.  I was using an 80 pounder in each hand, and had trouble figuring out the best way to go from sitting up to laying down with the weights.  On inclines I just kick the weights into place with my knees, but I’m not sure I could’ve done that trying to lay down….I will hafta work on that if I do the exercise again, which I probably will.  Anyway, overall it was a nice change of pace, and I think that if I had tried to do my usual stuff, exhaustion would have taken over, so the change kept me going.  Ok, time to watch a movie and go to bed…goodnight.

Double cardio update: 17/19.

Ok.  So I can definitely feel a difference from my caloric deficit this week.  I don’t feel tired or anything during the day, but I have been sleeping more deeply when I sleep, and in the gym I am not as strong at all.  I still feel like I can do a million sets, but I just can’t lift the same weight, at least that’s how it felt yesterday on Arnold Presses, and again today on pretty much all my bicep exercises.  To be fair though, I usually start with barbell curls and pyramid up in weight for four sets, but tonight I just did one light warm up set, and then four straight heavy sets, and finished with one set with a rest pause AND a dropset.  So maybe I just totally exhausted my biceps right out of the gate haha.  Anyway, I did 7 exercises, 4 sets of each, and felt completely pumped.  I’m not sure if it was because I was lifting a little lighter than usual, but I was really feeling a good squeeze at the top of my reps and felt a really nice pump.  So it was a great workout and I did my cardio after and played basketball for about 10 minutes just for fun.  I also swam for about 20 minutes in the pool, which I have never done before!  I always sit in the sauna and jacuzzi, but tonight my new friend Kim was back, and she convinced me to swim laps with her for a bit before I got in the jacuzzi.

Kim asked me to take another walk with her after……nah I’m too tired to talk about it all, lol, it’s a long story, so I will just end here and go to bed.  My mom will be in town tomorrow, so that’s always good.  I’m exhausted tonight!!!

Double cardio update: 16/18.

I had already done my abs last night with a pretty girl haha, but since I was doing exercises that I have never done, I wasn’t sure how my abs would feel today.  So I got on the ab curl machine just to see if my abs felt tight and sore from yesterday, and they definitely did, so I will be using some of those new ab techniques from now on……. Anyway.  Tonight I did my shoulders.  It was pretty basic, my shoulders always are.  I switched up the order to try and keep it fresh, but I think I need to research some new shoulder exercises and come up with something completely different to do besides my standards.  I did Arnold presses, rear delt flyes, lateral raises, hammer front delt presses, shrugs, and upright rows.  So that was about it.  I wasn’t feeling as strong tonight, I could definitely tell on the Arnold presses, and I’m not sure if I was just tired tonight, or if it is the result of my lower caloric intake.  Anyway, it was a decent workout nonetheless, but I will definitely be trying to do something new for my next shoulder workout.

I was hoping that Kim would be there again tonight.  She and I chatted for a long time and took a walk together on Friday night.  She usually comes about every other day, so I didn’t expect to see her Saturday, and I was right.  But I did expect to see her tonight, and she wasn’t there, so maybe tomorrow, I dunno.  I’m not like over anxious for any reason, I just am curious to see how she acts next time she comes after the interesting and flirty encounter we had on Friday.  She’s a little quiet I think, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she was completely the opposite and I had just caught her on an odd night haha, but if she is flirty again and wants to hang out more, then I will probably give her my number and see if she wants to make plans.  Anyway, I should go to bed, soooo until tomorrow.  Oooh, tomorrow is biceps!  I will hafta try something new tomorrow too

Double cardio update:  15/17.

I will keep this brief tonight so I can get some sleep.  All day long I was psyching myself up to do some super leg workout like the old days.  I was planning on doing 8-10 exercises, 4 sets each, heavy weights, and just not quit till I puked and couldn’t walk.  But when I got to the gym, I decided to do abs 1st, partly because I knew I wouldn’t do them at the end if I killed myself doing my legs, and partly cuz a really pretty girl smiled at me as she walked to the ab room haha.  So we did our abs together and chatted the whole time.  I have never seen her before, and she told me that she usually comes in the morning, but didn’t have plans so she came tonight.  Anyway, we discussed our fitness goals, and she basically talked me out of killing my legs since my short term goal is to do extensive cardio everyday.  I did a really good ab workout tho, and still worked my legs pretty hard, so I was happy.  I will be somewhat sore tomorrow, but still able to do my cardio, so I guess that’s what matters most for now.  Anyway, the girl, Jen, came and sat with me in the sauna for about 20 minutes afterwards and we had a very funny conversation and semi-flirted lol.  She was REALLY pretty, and really funny, so it was nice.  I hope she comes at night again sometime.

Other than that, I just spent all day doing my midterm, and writing my midterm essay.  I think that I actually did really well on the midterm, but bombed the essay, so hopefully they will balance each other out and I can get like a C+ or B-.  Anyway, keto is going well so far I think.  I followed my diet, and feel fine.  So in a few days maybe it will be affecting me more, but for now I’m good.  Other than that, just excited for March Madness and tomorrows Laker game.  Goodnite.